


Short and Not Always Sweet

by orphan_account



Category: One Direction (Band), Radio 1 RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Fluff, Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-07
Updated: 2013-04-06
Packaged: 2017-12-07 17:25:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 18
Words: 1,786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/751109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I opened my askbox on Tumblr one night. I told people if they sent me the name of a ship, i would write a five sentence story. Here is the collection.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Ziall

Niall was rarely self-conscious, except under the scrutinizing gaze of Zayn, especially when they met for the first time. Even after they became friends, Niall would occasionally catch Zayn sizing him up and would shrivel into himself. One day, they were in Zayn’s room; Niall playing guitar on his bed and Zayn perched at the desk, drawing something. Eyes focused on the swift, sure movements of his fingers across the strings, Niall missed Zayn staring again. And Zayn breathed a sigh of relief as he glanced down at the drawing on his lap; at long last he’d gotten Niall’s smile right.


	2. Zarry

“Mr. Styles, is there something you’d like to share with the class?” the teacher barked from the head of the class, exasperated. Harry nearly stuffed his fist in his mouth, desperately trying to quell his giggles. Honestly, it was Zayn’s fault. He’d passed Harry another note, this time it was an anatomically questionable drawing one of their Maths teacher, now turned back to the board. Zayn grinned sheepishly at him, impatient for a reply.

 


	3. Ziall

Niall was just a little too drunk (again). Zayn caught him and redirected traffic before he could do something stupid (again). Instead, Zayn dragged him into the middle of the dance floor and away from the bar. Being his usual overly-friendly drunk self, Niall proceded to grind on Zayn. And even though he hated dancing, Zayn loved Niall, so he went along with it (again).


	4. Zouis

Louis sat back in his chair comfortably, consulting the long list of names in front of him before reading the next one off, “Malik, Zayn”. A fit bloke in a black leather jacket hinting at his tattoos, loped on stage, and no, Louis’s heart wasn’t doing strange things. “Hi. My name’s Zayn and I’ll be singing Frank Ocean’s Bad Religion,” Zayn announced, before giving a sharp nod off stage and the electronic organ music filled the empty auditorium. And holy shit, the lad could sing; Louis thought he was going to pass out, because Zayn was blatantly singing at him and his hair and eyelashes and voice, shit. When Zayn was done, Louis promptly stood up and recited his mobile number, amused to see Zayn pull a pen out of his pocket and scrawl the digits between tattoos on his arm.


	5. Ziam

It hardly seemed fair to Zayn that Mr. Olympic Alternate was his partner for weight-lifting. The kid had a six-pack at 16, for god’s sake and Zayn was still waiting on his damn growth spurt, but apparently, their p.e. teacher had no such qualms. Zayn was seriously considering ditching (again) to go smoke out behind the dumpsters with Ant and Danny, but cutting p.e. was what had gotten him into this mess in the first place, so instead he dressed out and hunted down his demi-god of a partner. Liam was lying on ground, a 15 kg weight clasped to his chest as he did sit-ups awkwardly. “Zayn, right? Couldja hold my feet?” Liam asked, with such a winning grin that Zayn decided maybe this class wouldn’t be so bad.


	6. Larry

“Harry, c’mon,we’re gonna miss it!” For a seven year old missing a handful of his teeth, Louis could still manage to sound quite bossy, not that it really mattered. Harry stumbled along behind him, one arm clamped around the leg of his teddy bear and the other stretch out in front of him, grabbing for Louis’ hand, perpetually try to catch up to him. Finally, Louis stopped and waited for Harry to reached him, grabbing a pudgy fist in his own and pulling Harry along, totally oblivious to the younger boy’s gaze of adoration.


	7. Ziam

“I swear to God, if you two don’t keep your hands to yourselves, I am going to revoke your riding privileges,” Louis snapped from the driver’s seat. Zayn and Liam probably should have been more concerned, since neither of them could drive, but they’d long since ceased to take Louis’ threats seriously. Besides, he and Harry were just as bad, worse even. So instead, Liam half heartedly swatted at the back of Louis head and Zayn flipped the bird in the rearview mirror. And then they went back to kissing.


	8. Larry

Gone were the days of the X-Factor tourbus, with it’s long nights spent in crowded bunks, far from home. In a strange way, Harry missed them, though he probably shouldn’t. It was nice to be able to stretch out on his bed, and certainly he’d grown since last time, but still. He missed the feeling of Louis pressed so tightly against him that one of them was sure to fall out of the bed if the bus hit a bump. Harry was nostalgic for how things used to be, before beards and millions of fans and enough room for two in his bunk.


	9. Nouis

“Niall, would you just sit still?!” Louis demands, trying to be serious. Due to some circumstances that will never again be discussed, Louis managed to fit Niall into Lottie’s old Tinkerbell costume, to match his own Peter Pan one. Unfortunately, Niall has taken an inexplicable liking to the kit and is now refusing to take it off. Incidentally, he is also quite inebriated. Finally, Louis gives up and instead takes as many pictures as he can, because you could be damn sure this was going to go on Instagram.


	10. Narry

Niall is pretty much convinced that he is doomed to stay on the second-string footie team. The problem is that Harry, who has such a firm grasp of the games and certainly the proper build, cannot seem to stop a ball from going through the goal, and that’s not going to help anyone. Still, watching him fumble is pretty funny. So the next time the ball slips through Harry’s legs, Niall dissolves in to giggle, before being tackled by Harry. “Ah, forget it man, let’s just go to Nando’s,” Niall sighs.


	11. Tomlinshaw

Nick’s eye snapped open; someone had been poking him in his sleep. Fuck, it was Louis; Nick could just make out his face by the light of his alarm clock. “Louis, what the hell do you want at half two in the morning?” he groaned. “Just wanted to remind you that Harry likes me better,” Louis whispered sweetly, scrambling off of his bed and scampering out of his dorm room. Grimmy lobbed a shoe at Louis’ retreating figure as he cursed himself for ever giving Harry a spare key; it figured that his roommate would steal it.


	12. Ziam

Liam sat back on his heels and admired his and Zayn’s handiwork. “Not bad,” Zayn commented, wiping a bit of red paint on his joggers. Harry had just had his wisdom teeth removed, and was semi-comatose from the resultant painkillers. And since he’d recently destroyed Liam’s favorite Leona Lewis CD, it seemed like the ideal chance to exact his revenge. Louis was home in Doncaster, so Zayn had eagerly stepped in to help transform Harry’s room what appeared to be the scene of a bloodbath.


	13. Nouis

Niall could feel Louis tugging on his jacket, but his hands were busy with his guitar and a water bottle and he just wanted to have a sip of water between songs, but Louis growing more insistant. When Niall finally turned around, Louis rose up on his toes and whispered in his ear, the lyric change for the next song. Niall could feel his eyes widen as he accidentally spit his mouthful of water all over the floor, barely missing Louis shoes. When the next song, “Truly, Madly, Deeply”, came on, Niall couldn’t even look at Louis when his solo came up, but he could feel Louis’ eye boring into him, goading him into action. “Like all those days and weeks and months I tried to steal a kiss. And all those daydream that I masturbated to this,” Niall’s cheeks were flaming, but when he looked over at Louis, his grin overtook his whole damn face.


	14. Tomlinshaw

Grimmy stirred his tea, surreptiously trying to ruin Louis’ tea with sugar. Louis was distracted with texting him mum, and foolishly left his tea unattended. At this point in the game, Grimmy was mildly disappointed, as this had become something of a ritual, an now it was just too easy. Nevertheless, he quietly stirred sugar into Louis’s mug before adding some to his own and taking a sip. He nearly spat the tea in Louis’ triumphant face; Louis’d switched the sugar with salt.


	15. Nourry

It was a stupid idea, so obviously, Niall was game for it. Louis somehow convinced Harry that they could inconspicuously travel through Manchester in their onesies, because no one could see their faces (and people though Niall was the gullible one). But then again, If Louis said jump, Harry would ask how high. Besides, Niall was getting hungry, so he linked arms with his two favorite idiots and walked to McD’s, ignoring all the strange looks. It was all totally worth it because Louis made Harry pay.


	16. Zarry

Zayn gritted his teeth in frustration. At age nine, he should be able to tie his shoes, he should, but he still couldn’t and it was getting downright embarrassing. Luckily, the boy from up the street, Harry, had somehow noticed his knotted laces and every morning helped him retie them from the night before. Harry’s wide green eyes lit up when Zayn finally asked Harry to teach him how to tie his shoe laces. When Zayn finally got it right for the first time, Harry rewarded him with a wet kiss on the cheek before he ran away.


	17. Niam

Liam could tell that the screaming crowd was starting to get to Niall. In the loud, dense crush of bodies Liam could feel Niall’s breath hitching and rigidity of his body as his muscles tensed. They were stuck in the middle and it would easily take 5 minutes to get away from the crowds, so Liam struggled until he could manage to work one arm around Niall’s waist, pulling Niall back against his chest. He visibly relaxed against Liam, secure in the knowledge that no one was going to hurt him while Liam was around.


	18. Larry

Louis can’t help but think of a cat as he stares up at Harry, hanging from a branch in the tree. He has half a mind to just leave Harry up there; it is his own damn fault for climbing the stupid tree in the first place. But Harry looks so innocent and scared, childlike, evenas he is shouting down at Louis to do something for chrissake. Louis finally sighs and resolves to go find Liam to catch Harry. Before he can leave though, Harry’s grip gives out and he crashes on top of Louis in a mess of unruly giggles and flailing limbs.


End file.
